Makeesha's New Year sketch

Makeesha is back from a break away from blogging & all revived to inkspire us all once again-yay! Here is her sketch, with a chance to win a tin of the new Felt Fusion flowers from Stampin Up! so very generous of her isn't it???





It's a good one isn't it? Here's what I created...




I started with an always artichoke base & embossed with swiss dots. I stamped a piece of river rock c/s with my Paisley BG stamp in river rock ink. Punched a piece of white c/s with my new Fiskars border punch-Florentine, top & bottom & wrapped with a length of ribbon. I stamped the little bird from Celebrate Everyday once on white & again on some of the leftover paisley/river rock piece. I cut out the river rock bird & mounted her up with foam dimensionals, also coloured her heart & flower band with purely pomegranate. Sponged the edges with river rock & mounted on river rock then purely pomegranate c/s. I punched out a 1" circle of pomegranate & a 3/4" circle from the paisley/river rock piece, attached an American Crafts flower & a button from the stash. I originally stamped 'just because' straight onto my paisley piece (once it was all stuck down & I knew as i was doing it I would regret it...) didn't like it-too flat, so I punch out a round tab out of the paisley/river rock piece & stamped 'thank you' onto it. It slid in nicely under the panel & I left the tab open for a bit more dimension, you can kinda see a shadow in the photo. I like...You like???

Viva la Verve 1 & 2

I found some challenges (with a twist) over at splitcoaststampers

on the verve forum- here is week 1 & week 2

Viva la Verve 01(week 1) sketch had a 'twist' of hardware, I got so carried away with my card, I nearly forgot to put some metal on! I have used Heidi Grace papers, Blue Bayou Stampin' Up cardstock & White Bazzill, Good Things Grow & Blooming with Happiness stamp sets. I wrapped a piece of pink ribbon around the long panel with a metal pinwheel & attached a couple of Making Memories photo corners on the top panel. I mounted the Good Things Grow stamped image onto a 'postage stamp' die cut & some foam mount tape. The sentiment in the bottom corner reads 'may your day bloom with happiness'.

Viva la Verve 02 (week 2) had a 'twist' of bling

For this one I started with a piece of Bazzill Bling cardstock-nice & sparkly! Embossed a panel of silver with "Diamonds in the Rough' bug embossing folder, mounted on black bazzill & bordered with Heidi Swapp bling frames. The larger panel is white with sponging all around the edges & flower-doesn't show up too well in the photo.Stamps are some new Basic Grey acrylic stamps I picked up on the weekend-very cute & had to ink them up as soon as I got home (nearly!) I also used my new Fiskars border punch on the black mat of this larger panel & also the bling frame. The butterfly was stamped in white onto the bazzill bling c/s& cut out, with a touch of 'pixie stick' glitter-also new! and the flower & surrounds has a dusting of some glittery concoction, also a bit hard to see in the photo. I finished it off with some piercing in the corners &

mounted it up on foam for some dimension. Here is a bit of a close up...

Verve Challenge Champion!

Here are the other 3 challenges from the Verve 'Looking for Love' release-fingers crossed I might be lucky enough to win something...

and because I got all 4 challenges completed before the deadline, I'm apparently a Verve Challenge Champion! I think that means there are more chances to win stuff!

Mojo 68 & a Verve colour challenge

I got one card out of 2 challenges this time,which was good because I had more challenges to get to! This one is for Mojo Monday #68 & also a Verve Stamps (Poetic Artistry) new release challenge ( 1 of 4 so there's more to come very soon) The challenge was to use Red Riding Hood (not available is oz) Blush Blossom & Kraft or we could substitute similar colours, which was great because I had NONE of these exact colours!

First of all the mojo sketchand the colour samples

and my card

I'll be back soon with the other 3 Verve challenge cards...

Mr Will

Some layouts from Will's album...I really wanted to scrap this ultrasound photo, but wasn't too sure how to go about it for a while. In the end I went half pink half blue and just journalled what we were thinking, what the old ring test predicted, how his legs were pulled up in the photo so we couldn't see anything & that we didn't really want to know-surprises are good!, that we really didn't mind either way-pink or blue-loved all the same, always! I used Basic Grey Gypsy line for the patterned paper & tried to balance it with some plain paper from the same line.

This one was a pagemaps sketch challenge over at aussiescrapbooking

This one uses Kaisercraft paper. I used one side for the dotty strip & cut out the quotes from the other side. Some white Basic Grey rub-ons, a 'ghost' arrow, bottle top embellishment & that's it. I did the journalling on a stamped tag which is from the set 'Stamp of Authority' from Stampin' Up.




For this layout I followed Jill's instructions at aussiescrapbooking
She ran some BAL's (Build A Layout) basically each day for 6 days you were given one or two instructions on what to do. No-one had any idea how their layout would look at the end of the week! Hopefully Jill did ; )

A couple of wedding layouts

Even though we got married 3 years ago, I haven't scrapped all of the wedding photos I would like to-maybe for every Will page I should do one of us...

For this one I used a bunch of Basic Grey tags as a border around my photo, with journalling & a little bit of doodling in the corners. I painted the chipboard letters & did 2 or 3 layers of embossing powder to give a really good shine.

This one uses lots of rub-ons & some chipboard hearts.

London Bridge & Lake Louise

I drew a doodled frame for my journalling on this one & used the 'London Bridge' wording in the photo for my title. That is etched in the side of the bridge & I took a photo as we cruised past-unfortunately that old man in the corner wasn't smiling for my shot!

For this layout I used a clear 'travel' themed overlay. It has some words & writing on it which I put a lick of paint on the back of the words I wanted to highlight.

Newsflash...Cropadile attacks chipboard!

I decided to finally get to & make Will's nameplate for his door. I took some photos along the way so you can see how easy it was - & I'm using up stash!

First of all, find some chip letters-if you don't have any I'm sure I have enough to share!

Next attack your shapes or letters with a cropadile, I went for indents so when I wiped the ink over, the chipboard colour showed through.

Pretty basic-next you wipe over the chipboard with your ink pad. I used Stampin' Up "Buckaroo Blue" to match the colour scheme, but I have used chalk ink before & I do prefer that softer/creamy look. Up to you-have a play & see what you prefer.

All done? If the ink looks too dark, swipe very gently with some white ink or too light, swipe with more colour. I also drew some dash/faux sewing lines around the edges with my white gel pen.

Finish your masterpiece!! I attached my letters onto a small canvas, which I ran my textured wheel & buckaroo blue over & added some Basic Grey 'black tie' ribbons

Simple hey?
You could use your altered letters or shapes on scrapbook pages, cards, tags for Christmas & birthday presents, kids school books, your family hat/coat rack...the list goes on!

On the layout below I used chalk ink on the letters.

Mojo 64

I'm a little behind -ok make that a lot! behind in the whole mojo sketch thing, but I'm ok with that...I'll get some more done I'm sure ; )

Here's #64

and here's mine (plus I used some stuff out of my scrap box! I can nearly close the lid now, hehehe!

I also get to tick another stamp off my list! Yay for me ; )
{see previous post on 'using all my stamps'}

This one uses Sidekick Sayings & some Basic Grey 'Blush' paper & ricrac from SU Flirty ribbons pack.

Is it possible to use every stamp I own?

I would like to use every Stampin' Up set I own before I buy anymore, possibly even every stamp!?! Can I do it?...that new summer mini catalogue has definately got my name all over it! Plus it's Sale-A-Bration time...free stamps, oh my!

Here's a start to using as many stamps as possible & lots of stuff out of my paper scraps/stash box...good luck to me : )

Celebrate Everyday & Stem Silhouettes

Petals roller & A Little Love (with Iris folding)
Paisley BG & Stem Silhouettes
Paisley BG & Lots of Thoughts
Petal Prints & Lots of Thoughts

A Little Love & Distressed Stripe Cuttlebug folder ( better get some use out of that too!)



Brushed Swirls -not Stampin' Up but it's in my stash so it needs using! It's Judikins if anyone's interested & a very handy stamp.

Celebrate Everyday & some SU designer prints paper & cuttlebug

That's a start anyway, but I think I'm going to need a list of what I have & what I'm using...might be able to keep track that way, or I could just trust myself not to give up early...hmmm-mind is wandering to thoughts of the mini catalogue already! Eeeep ; )

Silly season +1st birthday = no time for craftiness

I'm sure everyone is too busy during the silly season to get crafty (unless you don't need sleep??) I found out just over 12 months ago that sleep really is over-rated...

here's why...

Anyway, here we are a whole silly season later, still busy, still not sleeping, everyone sick and having a 1st birthday! woo-hoo : ) This is how we celebrated...

The Cake...

and the eating of the cake!

We laughed so much at Will eating his cake-I took about twenty shots all 'NO HANDS cake eating style'! Maybe it's all the rage in toddlerville??? Oh well, it should make an interesting page in his album!

Hopefully you enjoy your birthday cakes as much as this!

Mmmm...chocolate!

Check out these guys for some chocolate indulgence...YUM!




You know you want some....

if so, just do this - crumble a cake (about 350gms) I used gingerbread cos I made one for something else & burnt the edges-damn! Beat 125g cream cheese til smooth, mix in 1 cup nutella & crumbs. Roll into balls, pop in freezer til firm again. Roll around in melted chocolate, once set, dribble white chocolate on top (or actual dribble if you can't help yourself!) & decorate with some m&m's or similar before the white choc sets.

CHOMP!

Enjoy x

More layouts

I'm glad I took the time to scrap a lot of our overseas trip-probably a whole lot more to scrap though...